Our next stop is Perth, a city in the same country but a longer trek than our journey to New Zealand.
Over four days of highways, deserts and coastlines it’s a road trip of epic proportions and resident truckie Wazzy joins our mates at Autobarn Lowndes Racing and Tekno in a convoy of transporters (powered by our Iveco Stralis prime movers) travelling the 4,500km across the Nullarbor.
Sure, it might be a pretty cool road trip with the gang but what really happens?
“What happens on the road stays on the road,” Wazzy joked.
Okay Wazzy, it’s not Vegas. Surely you can’t pump it up that much?
“It normally takes four days of driving, not including the stopovers,” said Wazzy.
“The route we go is out to Goondiwindi, down to Gilgandra, across to Broken Hill, through the Peterborough Ranges to Port Augusta, then straight across the Nullarbor.
“I do get to stop at some pretty nice places. My favourite part is basically anywhere across the Nullarbor where you’re on the Great Australian Bight.
“You’re in the fresh air and can smell the ocean and the sea water.”
While we can’t imagine there’d be too much else going on in the middle of nowhere, despite spotting some spectacular wildlife, what else gets a truckie through the long journey?
“It’s not boring when you can get a good view over the ocean. You can see much more from a truck driver’s seat than from a car which can be boring as you can’t see as much.
“We come across a fair bit of wildlife like kangaroos, wombats, emus, pigs and goats. It’s pretty cool.
“I listen to music like Guns N’ Roses, I do like a bit of everything though. I usually log in to my wife’s account on the library app and borrow books and they read stories to me.
“Free downloads and listen to stories on the way over, it’s pretty good.”
Looking at our transporter, they’d take a fair whack of fuel so how many pit stops at Caltex are we looking at?
“I can do it in three fuel stops, the fuel lasts 14 to 16 hours of fuel time but it depends on the head wind, it tends to take a lot more fuel out of you,” Wazzy explained.
And sleep? When does the sleeping happen?
“I get my normal eight hours sleep on the way over but on the way back we go two-up and it takes anywhere between 52-54 hours of non-stop driving,” continued Wazzy, “aside from the quick dinner, breakfast, shower and fuel stops.
“You don’t get a constant decent sleep, but you do get to sleep because you’re that knackered. And we change over driving at the four to five-hour mark.”
In this beautiful country of ours, we’re sure there’s nothing better than getting the chance to soak it all up on a journey across the country, from the comfort of the swish Iveco prime mover.
If you come across Wazzy and the gang, don’t forget to give them a friendly wave 🙂